TO THE  CLASS  OF  1961

By Charlie Haid and Peter Steinhart

delivered by Charlie on 9-10-11 at our 50th Reunion

This summer my mind has been filled with children’s voices. They echo in the warm nights. They laugh, they taunt, they cry and they are filled with joy.

I look out into my backyard for them but like most of us they are long since gone. Off to the world like we did so many years ago. Only the memories remain. Yet I still hear them echo through the years.

And then I discovered that the voices I was hearing were from another time, a time of innocence and of fun.  The voices were yours and I longed to come home to all of you. And here we are!  Last night we all came home and I felt my heart open wide.  In some magic way time stopped and here we all were 50 years later and the joy I felt in the room was indescribable.

In seeing you I remember a time when life seemed so sweet and filled with promise; a town of Sycamore lined streets and Acacia blossoms and bike hikes on summer days.  Of tall spring grasses and girls on handlebars by moonlight. We’re sneaking into the Stanford Theatre, sharing a milkshake at the Penn Creamery, bopping in a garage, buying saddle shoes at Rapp’s, cruising Marquard's, stealing candy from Bolander’s, and making-out at the Palo Alto Drive-in.  Flagg football at Crescent Park,  Sand Hill,  Alma Street; Mac’s Smoke Shop, Fran’s, Frosty Freeze, The Grass Steps, swimming at Searsville, burning cars at Lake Lagunita, Mud Racing in the Groves, Colt 45 and Olympia from Big Daddy Jim Blaine in East Paly; St. Thomas Aquinas, Walter Hays, Jordan, Crescent Park and Lytton.  From University to Oregon, from the 101 to El Camino – we OWNED IT ALL.

And now we are – most of us – here and we so miss those who are not. We’re here to remember, to catch up, and to celebrate.

We’re all different people than we were 50 years ago. We have grown and fought and lived, married and divorced, had kids and lost loved ones. We are richer in wisdom and in spirit and we’re grateful for what life has brought us and what we have and the lives we have lived. We have done what we have done and there is somehow a shared peace in that. Nothing left to prove – the playing field is level and what a relief that is.

Too late now for regrets. We have done what we have done. Who knew then what we would become and what we would make of our lives.  Mothers and fathers, grandfathers and grandmothers, doctors, lawyers, engineers, inventors businessmen and women;  philanthropists, educators, wanderers, soldiers, humanitarians, pastors, artists – we all found our calling and it began in this sweet and easy and oh so creative place.

How did we ever grow up? My guess is that we had things here that we little noticed or appreciated at the time.

This is the home of space technology, the linear accelerator, open-heart surgery, LSD, The Grateful Dead and The Jefferson Airplane, and the chip that changed the world!  Hey, we partied and rolled cars on what is now the 280, rode our bikes up Venture Capitalists’ Lane on Sand Hill and our little town is now the most expensive community per capita in the nation.

We had a highly educated community which valued learning and welcomed the rapidly changing world in which we grew up.  Our parents and our teachers surrounded us with optimism and hope. They were exploring and creating the technology that transformed the world and they were including us and as a result the people in this class have gone beyond anything our parents and teachers could have imagined. These 50 years have brought new wealth, new science, communications and ideas and now our little town is where the captains of the new technology want to live and Paly is where they want to send their kids.

So thanks Mom and Dad, for raising us and thanks to the teachers who put up with our youth and encouraged us, and thanks to the men and women who put this shindig together, and thanks to the Class of 1961 for showing up tonight to complete the circle.

So toast yourselves, Classmates.  We wanted to be cool and it turns out--we are!